Laser Hair Removal Device Prompts Bomb Scare at Melbourne Airport

Avalon Airport in Melbourne partially shut down for several hours Thursday after a laser hair removal device and a hot chocolate container prompted a bomb scare.

Police responded to the airport, approximately 50 kilometers southwest of Melbourne, around 6:00 a.m. local time when a suspicious package was discovered during security screening, causing delays for domestic flights. International operations were unaffected.

The bomb squad examined the package and found a laser hair removal device and a hot chocolate box, police said.

The owner of the package was initially detained but later released. The airport reopened approximately four hours later.

Victoria Police Acting Inspector Nick Uebergang said the situation was prolonged because of the man’s behavior.

“The person who had the bag wasn’t too cooperative with us to start off with,” Uebergang said, which made “things a little bit difficult.”

“They probably could have averted things and we could have got out of here a little bit quicker.”

The man, a Melbourne resident, was not charged, police said.

An airport spokesperson said the response “demonstrates the vigilance of the screening and security processes” and that precautionary measures were “taken immediately to ensure the safety of passengers, staff and the broader community.”

Several passengers described the scene at the airport during the lockdown to local media.

“We arrived at the airport around 7am and they had just put up the closure. No one sort of knew what was going on,” one passenger told ABC Radio Melbourne.

“We knew something was fairly significant because there were a lot of police cars and other sort of cars going into the airport.”

Manjeet Singh said he was told to wait in the carpark when he arrived to catch a flight to Brisbane due to a “security incident.”

“There’s no arrangements, no bathroom, no toilet, no beverages, no nothing,” Singh told The Age.

Budget airline Jetstar, a subsidiary of Qantas, operates domestic and international flights from Avalon Airport, Victoria’s second busiest air hub.

Two domestic flights – one to Sydney and another from Sydney – were canceled, while several others were delayed.